Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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Our next item is our meeting with the chairman designate of the Grangegorman Development Agency, Mr. John Monahan, to discuss the approach he will take in his new role and his views on the challenges facing new agencies.

Members will be aware of the Government decision of May 2011 which put new arrangements in place for the appointment of persons to State boards and bodies. The committee welcomes the opportunity to meet with the chairperson designate in public session to hear his views. We trust that this provides greater transparency to the process of appointment to our State boards and bodies. On behalf of the committee I welcome Mr. Monaghan and also Mr. Michael Hand who is the CEO of the Grangegorman Development Agency.

By virtue of section 17(2)(l) of the Defamation Act 2009, witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect of their evidence to this committee. If you are directed by the committee to cease giving evidence in relation to a particular matter and you continue to so do, you are entitled thereafter only to a qualified privilege in respect of your evidence. You are directed that only evidence connected with the subject matter of these proceedings is to be given and you are asked to respect the parliamentary practice to the effect that, where possible, you should not criticise or make charges against any persons or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable.

I invite Mr. John Monahan to make his opening statement.

Mr. John Monahan:

I am accompanied by Mr. Michael Hand, the chief executive officer of the Grangegorman Development Agency, GDA. It was previously led by Mr. John Fitzgerald, who laid the foundations for the agency which I am trying to follow up on.

The agency is taking over a 73 acre site which, hopefully when constructed, will revitalise an area of Dublin city that was not blessed by the Celtic tiger. It will be merged into the Phibsborough-Grangegorman area as a seamless integral part of the area, not as a separate walled-off town. This is also a flagship project in the stimulus project announced earlier in the year with the Government fully behind the scheme. I am an accountant and interested in value for money. That is the way projects are being conducted these days and how I will approach this particular project. However, it is also about doing it well and making it relevant to the community at large. I do not believe in corporate governance; corporate citizenship is also important. The GDA is actively involved with the community. For example, the agency has engaged with the community on an Educate Together scheme and other planning projects through consultation processes.

The mental health facility is being built out. I have visited the site more or less once a month since becoming chair and I am glad to say progress over the past several months has increased. From discussions I have had, this project will be delivered to the Health Service Executive, HSE, for early 2013. It will be up to the executive to put personnel in and transfer patients to the new facility. The building is state-of-the-art and is worthy of praise when compared to the building from where patients will be moving.

It is a bit longer into the distance as to when Dublin Institute of Technology, DIT, will take up possession of its facilities at the site. The first tranche of students, 1,000, will arrive in 2014 with the second and the largest tranche, 10,000 students, to arrive in October 2017. Hopefully, the two quads will be built by that stage and fully in place. The new Luas BDX line coming through Broadstone Gate will enhance transport for students and staff. The idea is for the site to depend more on public transport. It will not be like the UCD site but the Trinity College Dublin site, compact by its nature. There will be 1,150 car spaces but we will not encourage people to use cars to get there. By 2017, there will be 2,000 units on the site for student accommodation. The project is SDZ-proofed from a planning perspective so it is part of the Dublin city strategic development plan. This means the site can be built out over time without third party objections. The site has won several awards from the American Institute of Architects and Society for College and University Planning.

I am a firm believer in the scheme. I have lived in the area for the past 30 years and seen it go up and down. This is one project of which the local community is positive and sees making a positive contribution to the area. The committee is welcome to attend the site and we will keep it abreast of developments there over the next while.

Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome Mr. John Monahan and Mr. Michael Hand to the committee. I got an update on where the project stands last week. There were several issues of concern around the mental health facility which I hope are being rectified.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Chair and welcome Mr. John Monahan and Mr. Michael Hand to today’s meeting. It is important the agency gets the opportunity to put on the record of the House where things stand with this project and the progress made. I could not be more supportive of this project as it is magnificent for the area. I am delighted the Government was able to play a role in getting this project back on track after the decisions made over a year ago. It is a great credit to the agency to see how it has navigated its way through the different challenges that have emerged. As someone who is always quite sceptical of the idea of having an autonomous agency to complete such a project – one person’s agency is another person’s quango – I have seen the benefits of an approach where a small group of people who are not embedded in any particular Department but understand how they all work can play a role in pushing a project through and dealing with the ups and downs. It has been a real lesson to me in terms of the role a body such as the GDA can play in a project so large.

As part of the recent planning application that was lodged, I have become aware over the past couple of days of some local concerns regarding transport on Rathdown Road and the allocation of coach drop-offs and taxi ranks.

I may speak to the witnesses later today about that issue. The agency has worked well with the community throughout this project and it has addressed its concerns in a positive manner. I simply flag the issue as something that needs to be worked on over the coming days. It is exciting that work will be starting next year and students will begin to use the campus over the next 12 to 18 months. As we get into delivery mode, however, there will be an attitude of disbelief that it is actually happening and I encourage the agency to continue its efforts to keep the project in the public eye once the work begins. Even though I am delighted with the progress we have made, we still have a long way to go before we realise the full vision of the strategic development zone, SDZ. The agency has been successful at keeping it on the boil when times were difficult but it will be important to continue to doing that because all of us want to see the entire project delivered.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour)
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I happened to be knocking on doors when this announcement was made. When I arrived at the doorstep of an individual who worked for DIT and gave her the good news, she hugged me. That was the first hug I got since I became a Deputy. I thank the Grangegorman Development Agency for arranging that.

I formerly represented the Grangegorman area on Dublin City Council at a time when a considerable number of development projects were being planned for O’Devaney Gardens and elsewhere. Many of these projects never came to fruition, with the result that a level of cynicism had developed within the local community. Around the same time, a major redevelopment of Phibsborough shopping centre was proposed, which gave rise to concerns about the impact on traffic and transport.

It is an exciting prospect that all DIT’s different educational centres, which are currently dotted around the city, will be moving to a central location on the northside. I ask, however, that the agency bring the local community with it because it has already experienced disappointments with previous projects. We will do what we can as local representatives to ease the process. I ask the witnesses not to be strangers to this committee because we want to engage and provide whatever support we can.

Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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I am looking forward to the development of the Grangegorman site for two reasons. First, I used to work for DIT, as did my father, who is in the Visitors Gallery, and mother. My siblings also studied at DIT. I saw what it did in terms of transfer, progression and access to education. Second, I was on South Dublin County Council when it adopted the Adamstown planning scheme. Of all that I did on the council, that is the achievement of which I am most proud because the legislation underpinning the scheme delivered much better planning than was previously on offer.

Mr. Monahan mentioned his qualifications in accounting and taxation and his experience with local representation as a member of the visiting committee for Mountjoy Prison and Arbour Hill. He has also studied conflict resolution and mediation skills. What made him decide to put his name forward as chair and what is his vision for the role?

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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Has he ever regretted it?

Mr. John Monahan:

I have at times. I put my name forward because I had been involved in that area for approximately 40 years. I lived first on Cabra Road and then on the North Circular Road. I was always convinced that the powers that be, including the city council, were not particularly interested in the project. I got an opportunity to become a member of the board several years ago and I jumped at it. One would not normally expect an accountant to be a protestor but I led marches down the North Circular Road and I had great fun contacting a radio programme to announce that we would be blocking that road. We continued the protest for six weeks in order to get people to listen to us.

This is an opportunity to revitalise the area. People have seen this project stop and start many times and they do not yet believe it will happen. My biggest challenge is to attend business meetings and local committees. I was in Smithfield last week and was somewhat disappointed to find that the business community did not believe the project would proceed. My job is to convince people it has to happen. They are the only people in this country to get a project of this size on their doorsteps but they need to plan for it. Smithfield is a wonderful facility but it is under utilised.

DIT currently operates from 38 sites. If it wants to send the message that it is a successful third level education provider it needs to be on one site to provide value in the courses it offers. It will enhance the reputation of DIT and the students who attend it. If we cannot employ people in Ireland, at least we owe them the right to be educated properly to go abroad.

Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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I wish Mr. Monahan all the best in his new role. It is useful for us to have this type of discussion. It is a new role for the committee and we still need to find our feet but it is a more transparent process.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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In regard to openness and transparency, all of the current vacancies on the board of the Grangegorman Development Agency are advertised on www.publicjobs.ie. It is important we are able to demonstrate to anybody who is interested in vacancies of this nature that he or she can find out about them and apply for a position. I was delighted last week when a resident from an adjoining area contacted me after seeing on the website that a post on the board was vacant. The resident asked me how a member of the public could apply for the position and I was able to explain that one should apply through the website. This is a mark of our emphasis on transparency.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour)
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The easiest way of quietening agitators is to put them in the chair.

Mr. John Monahan:

We have received 17 applications for the board, which is welcome. The applicants are being short-listed at present.

In regard to the mental health facility, Grangegorman Development Agency does not have a direct role in how the HSE or DIT run their day-to-day affairs.

However, I took the trouble to check and Deputy O'Brien raised the issue. I am assured that everything will be better run this year than in previous years.

Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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I thank members and Mr. Monahan. I ask the committee to agree that we will inform the Minister for Education and Skills have we have concluded our discussion with Mr. Monahan and that we will forward a copy of the transcript of the meeting to the Minister for his information. Is that agreed? Agreed.